Cycling awards ???

[Mr. Beanz]

Saw some discussion going on in another thread and thought it might make for an interesting topic. Post your awards and stories behind them if you like.

I've got several event t shirts and medals. Most mean nothing but a couple that are must earns mean more to me. First was a medal from a ride where I traveled out of state to do a metric century. First 100 riders at the finish line receive a medal. Cool, I wanted one but my style of riding is to ride events solo. I like the "own effort" side of a ride. So I did 40 miles of the ride solo till some dude talked me into riding with him after his partner dropped out with a broken spoke. I/we ended up with a 20 mph average for the 62 mile ride. I got my medal.

I'm the big pumpkin!

Next was a ride named Breathless Agony (112 miles with 12,000 ft of elevation gain) This one has a story behind it!

Riders must complete all 4 passes in order to earn the right to buy the jersey ($75). Timed event and time cut offs so no loafing on the ride. Once you complete the ride, your name is placed on the list and at any time one may purchase a jersey EVEN IF IT IS LATER YEARS. Like I said, once you complete the ride you can buy a jersey whenever you wish if your name is on the list!!!!

The year I did the ride the jersey color sucked big time ha ha! I passed on the jersey. As much as I would like to represent this ride, I could not deal with the color.

But the following year the color was cool! Nice yellow with black carbon fiber pattern. Now this I liked and the color scheme somewhat matched the colors of my bike back then.

The website said at any time a rider could buy the jersey if he called or went into the bike shop that hosted the ride. So the wife and I took the day off, played hooky and drove down to the shop which was about an hour drive for us. We were just having fun that day so the drive was cool!

But once I got in there I told the guy I wanted to buy a jersey. OK we all know climbers are lightweight smaller guys most of the time. The guys in the shop were all little 150 lb looking guys. One guys says, "let me call the owner to the counter". The owner comes to the counter, looks me up and down and says, "Uhhh no!".

OK so he looks at me like it's not possible for a 230 lb rider to do the ride. I actually did it with ease on a standard crank (53/30-12/25 cassette).

OK, what do you mean NO?!

He says a ride has to complete the ride in order to earn the jersey!

Ok, here is my ID, look up my name on the list, I completed the entire ride with plenty of time to spare!

He says, "uhh no, I'm not looking up anything!".

Oh so you are refusing to sell me the jersey? I quoted the rules on the website. He still says no!

I got ******! OK you dumb f#Cking ass hole, you want to play that way?! I told him I was going to get the jersey the hard way!

Little did he know I ran a thread in a popular bike forum that attracted 20,000 view yearly by posting pics and videos. So many cyclist knew me and had ridden along with me on many rides. Including rides up into the mountains. Some were even on the ride with me.

The owner of the shop is affiliated with another big ride called Ride Around the Bear that I had already completed 4 times. I heard the organizer of this ride was pretty cool so I contacted him. I explained that I had completed his ride 4 times but yet his buddy from Breathless Agony did not believe I completed the ride.I asked him to check his records.

Now the dude who refused to sell me the jersey ran a popular cyclist training torture clinic. I know 3 riders who paid to take his class over a season or two and all I beat all 3 on the timed event. Lots of good his class does ha ha!

The guy had also been quoted in a newspaper claiming to be a poor businessman and wondered why his spin class had been so successful.

Guess what! Mr. Beanz does his homework. I used his quotes, I posted a thread in every forum and on my blog explaining the situation. I had a gang of riders who had completed the ride and even a few who wouldn't think of doing the ride backing me in the threads. The guy who ran the second ride got wind of it (after I sent him the links ha ha!). I really bashed the guy and many of my friends who could validate my riding were not very happy with the guy either.

So a few days later I get an email from the dude who refused to sell me the jersey:

I am sorry Mr. Beanz. I did not realize it was you who was asking to buy the jersey. I am sorry about the misunderstanding. I apologize and I would be happy to sell you the jersey at my cost and ship it to you free of charge seeing that I cost you time and gas having made the trip to my shop. I apologize and I am willing to do so if you remover your comments from your forum threads about me.

Sure! I will go on the forums and explain it was all a misunderstanding!

Few days later I received my jersey in the mail for $50 (reg price of $75)

This is the jersey as presented by my lovely assistant. OK so this was after a ride. We got home and I asked her to model it for me. So she looks a little beat!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

That is a nice jersey, Mr. B. It's a shame you had to go through all that to get it. You earned it so why did some assclown have to try to knock you down? To make himself feel better? It's a cool story with a happy ending.

I was in a similar situation after winning a car racing series that lasted months and involved maybe a dozen events. The winner was supposed to get a trophy. A worthless, cheesy fake marble and fake gold trophy worth maybe $10. The organizer refused to award ANY trophies to any of the classes of competitors after the results were in...he was snorting so much coke I figured he was thinking maybe he could pawn all the trophies for another 8-ball.

I, and everybody else involved, wrote off the trophies. No one really gave two *****, knowing what a drugaholic moron we were dealing with. I kept asking about them...month after month...'when' were we receiving them?...'who' was engraving them?...etc. After almost a year he gets foaming at the mouth with rage and hands me a huge box of trophies and literally screams that we should all be "happy" now.

I laughed all the way to the car and me and another guy paid to have all the guys names, classes, etc. engraved on the still blank plaques on those trophies. We contacted as many of the rightful owners as we could find and mailed them to them. They earned them. They expected them. And they deserved what they were promised.

Some of the most heated 'discussions' in cycling that I've heard were at the finish lines/awards ceremonies of races, organized rides and 'charity' events.

We live in an era in which everyone gets a medal or a ribbon or a trophy. Find a local hill or stretch of road and make yourself a segment. You get the virtual trophy. Yay, you! Run a 1/2-marathon? Put a 13.1 on your car. Run the 5K for research into curing Cranial-Rectal Inversion Syndrome? You get the brown T-shirt. Complete the hilliest ride in Ohio? You can pay Columbus Outdoor Pursuits big money for a jersey.

I have some medals and ribbons and trophies from racing results. And the usual assortment of T-shirts, jerseys, cycling caps and whatever SWAG they were giving away at some long obsolete and mostly forgotten event. Most of it is in boxes in a closet somewhere.

The memories of the fun had are all that matter to me. I hope I never get Alzheimers because the physical stuff is meaningless to me. The time with friends while my ribs hurt from trying to suck in more air is what I want to take to the grave.

Coolest move I think I saw was after an award ceremony. Some guy steps off the podium and upon over-hearing a guy whining about not finishing high enough to get a medal and bad-mouthing the organizer for not paying deep enough into the field...tosses the medal he was just presented at the whiner and says something to the effect of, "All yours, champ! Now, you're a winner!". We all laughed and laughed.

That was a coupe decades ago and I'll remember that day and that event for many more years...I hope.